1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cap holding device for holding a cap embroidered in an embroidery machine, and more particularly to a cap holding device for an embroidery machine, which reliably supports a cap while easily mounting the cap thereon.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As generally known in the art, a conventional cap holding device for an embroidery machine does not easily mount a cap thereon, so working time is increased. In addition, the conventional cap holding machine does not tensely maintain the cap, so that the cap is easily wrinkled and deformed. For this reason, embroidery designs are sometimes formed in a wrong position of the cap, instead of a precise position of the cap, in contradiction to user's intention.
Hereinafter, a structure and problems of a conventional cap holding device will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional cap holding device 50 for an embroidery machine, and FIG. 2 is a side view showing a cap mounted on the conventional cap holding device 50.
As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional cap holding device 50 includes a holding member 51 having a cylindrical shape for holding a cap and a pressing member 52 having a band shape for pressing the cap towards the holding member 51. The holding member 51 is provided at one end thereof with a flange section 53, which is vertically protruded from an outer wall of the holding member 51, and provided at the other end thereof with a saw-tooth type or a semicircular type protrusion, which is protruded at a right angle towards the outer wall of the holding member 51. The flange section 53 is formed with a pair of rods 54, which are positioned in adjacent to each other and extend along a central axis of the holding member 51. One of the rods 54 has a coupling member 57. The pressing member 52 is formed at one end thereof with a connection part 55, which is rotatably connected to one rod, and formed at the other end thereof with a fixing part 56 having a fastening unit, which is formed in the other rod and coupled to the coupling member 57. A perforation hole 52a is formed at a center of the pressing member 52 in order to allow a visor part P of the cap 10 to be freely inserted into the perforation hole 52a. 
In order to mount the cap 10 on the cap holding device 50, an anti-sweating part B of the cap 10 is firstly withdrawn from a cap part C. Then, after placing the visor part P of the cap 10 in opposition to the rods 54, the cap 10 is put on the holding member 51 and rods 54.
Then, the anti-sweating part B is spread along the holding member 51 and the pressing member 52 surrounds the anti-sweating part B from an upper portion thereof, so that the fixing part 56 of the pressing member 52 is coupled to the coupling member 57, thereby holding the cap 10.
In this state, a rear section of the cap part C is downwardly pulled so as to tensely maintain an embroidery region A and to make a margin area at a rear side Cc of the cap part C. In addition, clips 59 are coupled to two rods 54 from upper portions of the rods 54, so that the cap 10 is held in the cap holding device 50 in a state that the margin of embroidery region A is moved towards the rear side of the cap part C.
However, the conventional cap holding device 50 requires to couple a plurality of clips 59 to the rods 54 while downwardly pulling the rear side Cc of the cap part C, thereby lowering workability. In addition, since a plurality of clips 59 are used for tensely maintain the embroidery region A, it is difficult to carry out the embroidery work if clips 59 are broken or missed.
In addition, since an embroidery needle applies relatively great pressure to the cap 10, the visor part P of the cap 10 must be securely fixed. For this reason, it is necessary to form the perforation hole 52a in the pressing member 52 in order to insert the visor part P of the cap 10 into the perforation hole 52a. Accordingly, when the pressing member 52 surrounds the anti-sweating part B after the anti-sweating part B has been spread along the holding member 51, the visor part P must be inserted into the perforation hole 52a in order to mount the cap 10 on the holding member 51. However, this kind of work is very difficult and requires long time for mounting the cap 10 on the holding member 51.
Furthermore, due to the inferior workability of the conventional cap holding device derived from the structure thereof, the embroidery region A cannot be tensely maintained, so that inferior embroidery designs are formed on the cap.
Therefore, there has been required to provide a cap holding device capable of solving above-mentioned problems.